A catching up post!

It happens so quickly - all of a sudden I'm well behind in my blogging news and reading!

Here's an attempt at a catch up 

We had some friends visiting last week. They are the sort of friends that you just pick up from last time you saw each other. And we spent the whole time talking!

Us girls went to town and did the rounds of the Op Shops - she has a costume hire business and is always looking out for garments to use/recycle/etc. While she looked at the clothes I checked out things like buttons!

A nice lunch while we were out —

Robyn and I crafted. Every time she comes she brings a 'few' boxes of supplies. This time it was card making (as it was for their last visit two years ago) —

My card making skills are rather limited and slow but I did enjoy the change of craft for (just) a few days!
Robyn made a banner for our wee boy's wall —

I made some bon-bons —

You use a gadget that tells you where and when to cut, then score lines to fold along to form the cracker shape, and then decorate with more cut-outs. I'll put some yummies in these for the kiddies.

And then I made some cards —

Robyn sure does have a good supply of dies, stamps, papers and cards to choose from.

Apparently, next time they visit, we'll be making 3-D cards or boxes......

They also brought their (four) dogs with them. Incredibly well behaved.

They needed a swim to wash off the green - they found some nice fresh cowpats to roll in when we were walking. And may have found a few more on the walk back to the house again!

Oscar enjoyed watching them do their dog-agility tricks. From the safety of the fort!

Over the weekend I got the chance to join in with Chooky's zoom meeting - sew session for an hour. 

I hadn't intended to sew, just to chat and say hello to those who were there. But my fingers got itchy and I found myself sorting through some leader-ender Omigosh blocks that were nearby. It's been a long time since I've sewn any of these so it was quite good to have some time to play with them. I pinned those I could, and created a good little pile to sew —

A spare hour or so later on in the weekend and I had sewn the pieces joined, pressed and trimmed. And out of the scraps, created two more blocks, and some nice tidy units for more.

The way I'm making this quilt is very messy. I'm using true scraps (don't forget I can use down to 1" in size) so I always seem to have bits lying around. However it is very satisfying to create something tangible out of them all!

I had more photos to share but think I'll stop here. You'll all be yawning by now 😪

'til next time,
happy stitches,

Evening projects

As I was doing some prepping this afternoon, I realised I hadn't shared about my latest project.

Yes!! I have started something new!

Hmmm; somehow I found myself putting my hand up for sewing the shop sample of a new block of the month we are doing at The Country Yard.

How could I resist it? Here was me making a start —

You can see why I couldn't resist!

A few nights later I had two pets snuggled and helping me stitch...obviously they can read!

The quilt is The Santa, The Tree, The Turkey and Me by Anni Downs. Stitching onto linen and whip stitching the woven wool down (after sticking it down with fusible web). It's the first time I've used linen like this and I am quite enjoying it!

Here is block one, all completed —

A closer shot —

Below is how far I am with Block Two. The gingerbread on the oven tray need whip stitching down and I have some script next to the heart to stitch next as well.
I find it best to prepare just a few elements at a time.

My other project for the evenings is Michelle's Wings and Pretty Things. I had intended to be working fulltime on this but now that I'm doing the above project as well, I'm alternating them which is working quite well. I've already completed the centre block and just the other night, completed Block One of Border Three (I think) —

Such a cute well fed bird!

And I've made a start on the second block —

In other news, I put stirrups on the bottom of Odie's over-trou —

And while I had the pattern out I made him a pair of pants. I lengthened the body and legs and made it slightly narrower and it should fit him for a while —

This is just a scrap of fabric someone gave me about 20 years ago that I never got around to using. It's all gone now!!

Playing around and making a fancy little waist tie reminded me why I used to enjoy making clothes for the kids.

In our house we call these pants 'Truffs' - trousers with cuffs.... a name that has stuck over the years!

I think that's me caught up for now :-)

'til next time, 

happy stitches,

A finish on Friday

It was binding time when I sat down to join in with Cheryll and friends for Friday Night with Friends last night.

Nice to be at the binding stage as this quilt as been a long time in the making. It was glaring at me from my quilting chair saying "Pick Me, Pick Me" when I was feeling a little lost and trying to decide where to start next.
It's my Hannah and Harrington quilt started in a 2013 quiltalong by Michelle of The Raspberry Rabbits.

Although I set it as an April finishing goal, I stalled on it because I needed to do a foot conversion.

Recently though, I took a deep breath, watched the necessary video and changed my foot...the older machines had this foot on the left (photo above) which screws into the machine and stays there. Now my machine has a different shank and I can screw a foot off it and change over to a different one.

I was able to attach this Glide foot which glides around the wool appliques without catching and snagging on them. 

That means I've had a fun time doing some quilting lately. I didn't want anything too dense so worked hard to make sure my motifs didn't get too small - I do have a tendency to get really small. I quilted randomly, sort of feathery and spirally, making it up as I went, and really enjoyed it!

I had already quilted the small squares (a simple vine) and done a feather around the outside border AND stitched in the ditch of the applique blocks so, once I got into it all, it didn't take me too long to complete. (Insert happy dance here.)

Last night I walked into the living room at just the right time, as the setting sun was hitting the draped quilt (awaiting the rest of its binding) at the right angle —

Cool huh?!

Thanks to the company of everyone at FNwF I was able to finish stitching the binding down. This morning I took the quilt out for a photo shoot.

I fed calves in this spot recently - the paddock has an old concrete bunker in it and I wondered if it would make a good spot for quilt photography.

It wasn't quite high enough to show the whole quilt on the side with the sun behind me —

On the other side, in the shade with glare poking in at the side, there was enough height but no way to hang the quilt —

There was one old bolt sticking up which I tied baling twine to so that I could peg the quilt up. I improvised with the buggy and tied the twine to that to keep it taut!

The dogs enjoyed the outing!

Third side. Still not tall enough and nothing to tie my baling twine to!

Anyway, it was a lovely day and it was nice to be out and about even if my photoshoot wasn't entirely successful!

The closeup below shows the border quilting —

But it's easier to see what I did on the backside of the quilt — 

Thanks Cheryll for hosting Friday Night with Friends. Visit Cheryll and the others who joined in by clicking *here*.

'til next time,
happy stitches,